The invention relates to a communication system for the users of hearing aids, and as disclosed in the introduction to claim 1.
Such a system, but for use in receiving sound in connection with a radio receiver, TV receiver or the like, is known from British Patent Application No. 2,160,075, which describes an inductive coupling for the users of hearing aids. Via a commonly-known tele-coil, the inductive coupling transfers audio signals inductively to the user's hearing aid. There is hereby achieved an individual transfer of the audio signal to the user of the hearing aid via the hearing aid's so-called tele-coil signal input. This offers several advantages, e.g. that the volume of the sound for the hearing aid user can be regulated individually by means of the hearing aid, so that this does not influence the sound volume for possible other TV or radio listeners, and that the hearing aid user avoids background noise etc. and thus obtains a better sound quality.
A similar use of tele-coil communication for a hearing aid is known from International Application No. WO 95/01678, in that here there is used a tele-coil which is worn by the user, and from which audio signals from a unit coupled to the tele-coil can be transmitted further to the user's hearing aid via its tele-coil.
Moreover, it is known to use a headset in connection with a mobile telephone, hereby enabling hand-free operation and thus increase traffic security, and it is avoided that others in the vehicle can directly listen-in as is the case with other hand-free systems. Examples of such use are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,602 and British Patent Application No. 2,277,422. However, ordinary hearing aid users have only limited benefit from such use, in that noise from the surroundings, for example traffic noise, engine noise and the like is still extremely disturbing and makes communication difficult, especially for persons with greatly impaired hearing.
Use of tele-coil communication from an ordinary hearing aid to a head-worn hearing aid with tele-coil signal input is commonly known, both where the tele-coil is mounted in the handset's receiver or in a special unit, cf. for example German Patent No. 4,211,147. This configuration cannot, however, be used with the hand-free operation of a mobile telephone.